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28/11/2005
Flight hardware for immunological research
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Under Lockheed Martin contract, NTE has delivered to NASA Ames
Research Center (ARC) the flight hardware for the Fungal Infection, Immunity and Tumors (FIT) experiment. The FIT Experiment is a NASA ARC effort to elucidate the role of gravity on the immune system of living organisms. To this end, researchers from NASA ARC will send Drosophila flies to the Space Station to learn how space flights affect astronauts’ genes. |
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Surprising though it may seem, humans and drosophila are quite alike from the genetic point of view since 50% of fly proteins sequences show similarity to mammalian ones. A lot of additional factors increase these flies’ usefulness as a model organism: their genome has been totally mapped, the ease of breeding large number of animals in small spaces, excellent genetic markers are available, quick reproduction (many generations are studied in a short time), etc.
The experiment hardware consists of fly containers, feeding/eggs collecting trays and tray containers. The fly containers and trays are made of a high-strength plastic material, containing different Drosophila fly cultures at various stages of their lives including egg, larva and adult flies, whereas the tray containers are of aluminium. In addition, NTE also provided food production protocols, hardware operations and crew procedures.
The Drosophila experiment has been included in the next Shuttle mission ULF 1.1 currently scheduled for end of 2006. Among other results, this experiment will provide valuable insight on the neuronal function, aging, innate immunity or circadian rhythm to develop countermeasures to the negative effects of microgravity on humans. |
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